Change Is Not the Problem. Our Sense of Entitlement Is.

And with high probability, this is not a phase. This is the new baseline.

And then I read a serious article in a journal for consultants and coaches about the “losers of change.”

As if this dimension of transformation required special discovery.

Change inevitably involves 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐬.
Roles disappear.
Skills lose relevance.
Identities are challenged.
People are affected differently by these shifts.

That is not a design flaw. That is the nature of transformation.

What troubles me far more is how parts of German public discourse frame the situation:

As something people simply cannot be expected to handle. As if withdrawal, resentment, and voting for the fringes were a kind of psychological inevitability.

From a 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐬𝐲𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 perspective, this is not primarily political - it is developmental.
When external complexity grows faster than inner capacity, meaning-making regresses. We default to blame, nostalgia, and victimhood.

𝐍𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 adds another layer: sustained uncertainty activates chronic threat responses. Nervous systems contract. The prefrontal cortex loses influence.
Under pressure, we don’t rise - we downshift.

And here is the often ignored amplifier of this stress:

𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭.

The implicit belief that stability, prosperity, and continuity are givens.
That life should be predictable. That change, if it happens, should be fair, manageable, and preferably painless.

Reality doesn’t care.

The greater the gap between what we believe we are entitled to and what actually unfolds, the more resistance we generate - and the more exhausted we become.

Complaining is not protest.
Withdrawal is not dignity.
Resentment is not agency.

From a 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞, this moment looks different:
A collective 𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.

Initiations have always worked this way:
the ground gives way, identities dissolve, certainty collapses.
Not to punish, but to mature.

This is not about self-optimization.
It is about 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠.

Because disruption and uncertainty will continue.
And leadership now means preparing oneself - and others - to live, decide, and act inside that reality.

I work daily with leaders who are exhausted, scared, grieving. That deserves empathy.
But empathy without challenge becomes collusion.

The real crisis is not disruption.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬.

And the opportunity - if we are willing to face it - is to 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰 𝐮𝐩.